News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-04-28
A SALOON SUBSTITUTE.
The Drink Habit Not to be Dropped
ali at Oncs-Interesting sngges-
ttons,
from ths St, Paul PiouesE.j

/ In certain Of the minor cities Of the
East, where the licensing Of saloons is
/ forbidden, there are healthy indications
/ that the people comprehend the neces-
| sity Of putting something else in their
| pisces. Projects for coffee houses,
warm, bright, coy and attractive, with
the latest papers scattered about and q
! free concert now and then, are heard OF.
Let US hope that it viii not all end in
speculation; for your radical temper
ance agitator usually takes a view or his
hobby which leaves out of count alto
gether one OF the most important ele-
menta. It is very singular that any "a
tional man should have fallen into the
error which so many rational men cher
ish, of believing that people flock to
saloons merely to crafty depraved ap-
petite, and that they deliberately and
with malice aforethought make beasts
of themselves because the condition of
beastliness approves itself to their iudg-
ment and imagination. The fact is that
the saloon plays very important part
in the social life of man; and he who
would root it out must first supply some
thing to take its place. A visitor who
enters one of the more conspicuous and
centrally located liquor shops OF city
finds, usually, that the people there
come for the sole purpose OF drinking,
and that they drink because they want
to. But if he approaches the subject by
one of the multitude Of side entrances,
and examines class of saloons of lower
grade, not the wretched groggeries, but
the average saloon which working people
frequent, he will at once catch a glimpse
of the philosophy of the saloon question.
He will quickly understand that hun
dreds and thousands of men visit the
saloon far less on account OF appetite
and its indulgence than because of the
human contact there to be found.
The gregarious habit is not to be done
away with In twinkling. The men
who sweep streets or carry hods or lay
bricks or pass the solid working hours of
every day in some such employment are
not content to limit by these occupations
and by their family relations their asso-
ciation with others of their kind. Some
meeting place there must be, where the
things which interest them in common
may be talked over, ideas interchanged,
and the common life rounded out by sat
isfaction of the social instinct. 1t is be-
cause it furnishes place and a method
for this, as well as because it contains
that the saloon is favorite
place of resort. And whoever would
break down its popularity and destroy
its influence must come prepared to
meet and conquer the fact. The trouble
always has been that there seemed no
living room for the intermediate place
of entertainment and association. Lack
ing the enormous profits ensuing from
the sale of drinks, and stimulating no APP
petite to undue indulgence. the financial
aide of coffee house enterprises has gen.
orally shown balance to loss account. |
And, on the other hand, the last thing |
to which the man whom it is desired to
reach will submit is anything bearing the
brand of public or private charity. I'm |
less established on the business basis, it |
IS useless to think of ousting the saloon |
Dy providing less harmful successor. |
And yet this is the problem which the
social reformers must meet. They can
lot root out the inherent impulse that |
irives men together. They cannot hope |
@ supplant the saloon without supply |
ng its one really important and neces-
,ary function. It is a plain; practical
question, which demands practical con-
'ideration and action wherever the sa-
Don has come to be known as a tempter
md power for evil.